Empowerment

Time: 30 minutes (or more)

Audience: Executive officers (Possibly all members)
Room Setup: Seats for all participants around tables.
Needs: Empowerment Assessment (attached); Whiteboard or large notepad
LO 1: Participants will be able to describe facets of empowerment.
LO 2: Participants will be able to articulate how to increase their feelings of empowerment.
Timing
5/5

7/12

13/25

Activity/Questions
Introduction
In order for us to work as a team, we need to all be engaged with our
work. One thing that affects engagement and the work we all do is
our sense of empowerment.
Outcomes:
Today were going to look at what things contribute to a feeling of
empowerment.
Then, we will examine our own individual empowerment and discuss
how we can increase it as a group.
Empowerment Discussion
When I mention empowerment,
What things come to your mind?
What words or behaviors do you think of?
Some research has been done to identify specific traits of
empowerment, but before we define those, I want us to get a feel for
how empowered we might or might not be as individual officers.
Empowerment Assessment and Discussion
What Ive given you is the Empowerment Assessment. Take a few
moments to score your level of agreement with each of the
statements. When youre done, go ahead and add them up.
Gretchen Spreitzer, a professor at Michigan, developed this
empowerment measure. She found four aspects of empowerment,
which I encourage you to write in the bottom row of the assessment
as I describe them.

Special Notes

Use some transitional

phrasing to move on after
getting this feedback.

Pass out Empowerment

Assessment (attached)

The first column is meaning. This aspect describes your feeling

towards how important your work is or how much you care about it.
The second column is competence. This aspect focuses on your belief
in your ability to do your job. You noticed that it was about having the
knowledge and abilities.
The third column is self-determination. This is all about being free to
do your work as you see it, not being micro-managed or dictated to.

5/30

Lastly, the fourth column is impact. This measures your belief that
you and your work matter and will make a difference.
Now that weve defined each of these aspects, lets chat about your
level of empowerment.
What areas did you score high in?
What areas did you score low in?
Why do you think this is?
How can we in the officer team help improve your
empowerment?
Empowerment Close
Why was doing this important for us?

The Training Shelf

Allow 5 minutes for this

sharing.

Empowerment

What impact can it have on the work we do as individuals? As

a team?
How do you think empowerment can affect the rest of our
organization? Do you think they are more or less empowered
than we are as officers?
I want to make sure that all of us are as empowered to do our work
as we possibly can. Im glad we could discuss this and will work to
increase that feeling for everyone in the organization.

The Training Shelf

This is a sample closing. Feel

free to close the workshop as
you see fit.

Empowerment

Engagement Assessment
For each of the following statements, circle the number corresponding to your level of agreement. (1 is lowest, 5 is
highest)
1) The work I do is very important to me.

2) I am confident about my ability to do my job.

3) I have significant autonomy in determining how I do my job.

4) My impact on what happens in our organization is large.

5) My job activities are personally meaningful to me.

6) I am self-assured about my capabilities to perform my job activities.

7) I can decide on my own how to do my work.

8) I have a great deal of control over what happens in our organization.

9) The work I do is meaningful to me.

10) I have mastered the skills necessary for my position.

11) I have considerable opportunity for independence and freedom in how I do my

job.

12) I have significant influence over what happens in my organization.

Engagement Assessment Tally

Transfer your scores to the sections below. Note that numbers increase horizontally. Add scores down after
completing.
1

10

11

12

Total

Total

Total

Total

(Adapted from Spreitzer, G. (1995). Psychological empowerment in the workplace: Dimensions, measurement,
and validation. The Academy of Management Journal, 38, 1444-1465.)

The Training Shelf

Empowerment